The Complete Essays (208 page)

1
. Plutarch (tr. Amyot),
Que les bestes usent de la Raison
, 274AB.
’80: qualities.
For as concerns bodily shape it is evident that the species of beasts are distinguished by a mote evident difference than we are from each other
. Truly…

2
. ’80: mind
– for fools and those made witless by accident are not complete men
, that I would go…

3
. Terence,
Eunuch
, II, iii, 1, adapted.
and that beast,
meaning that the most excellent of the animals is nearer to a man of lowest degree than that man is to another man, great and excellent
. He…

4
. Juvenal,
Satires
, VIII, lvii.

5
. Horace,
Satires
, I, ii, 86.

6
. Seneca,
Epist. moral.
, LXXVI, 31. (There are a great many echoes of this and other
Epistles
of Seneca in this section.)

7
. Horace,
Satires
, II, vii, 83–8.
’80: an empire
and riches
unto himself;
he lives satisfied, content and happy
. And whoever has that, what more
is there?
‘non ne videmus…

8
. Plautus,
Trinummus
, II, ii, 84; Lucretius, II, 16.

9
. Herodotus says the same, without the irony (V, vii).

10
. Lucretius, IV, 1123–5.

11
. A combination of two phrases in Seneca:
Epist. moral.
, CXIX, 12 and CXV, 9.

12
. Horace,
Odes
, II, xvi, 9–12; Lucretius, II, 47–50.

13
. Lucretius, II, 34–6; Erasmus,
Apophthegmata
, IV,
Alexander Macedo
, XVI. (Alexander was echoing Homer’s account of Venus wounded by Diomedes.)

14
. Plutarch (tr. Amyot),
De Isis et Osiris
, 323F; Erasmus,
Apophthegmata
, IV,
Antigonus Rex Macedonum
, VII. (The poet’s name was Hermodotus not Hermodorus. The error is Montaigne’s. In the
Quart Livre
of Rabelais, as in Erasmus, he is correctly named.)

15
. Persius,
Satires
, II, 38–9; Terence,
Heautontimorumenos
, I, iii, 21–6; Horace,
Epistles
, I, ii, 47–52.

16
. Plato,
Laws
, II, 661C–D.

17
. Tibullus, I, i, 71; Horace,
Epistles
, I, xii, 5. [A] until [C]: add
nothing
to.

18
. Plutarch (tr. Amyot),
Si l’homme d’aage doit encore mesler des affaires
, 183D.

19
. Lucretius, V, 1126–7; then Erasmus,
Apophthegmata
, V,
Cyrus Major
, I.

20
. Borrowings here and later from Xenophon’s
Hieron
(
On Kingship
), also Ovid,
Amores
, II, xix, 25–6.

21
. Horace,
Odes
, III, xxix, 12–15.

22
. Plato,
Gorgias
, 468C–469C. Ensuing anecdote: Erasmus,
Apophthegmata
, VIII, Alphonsus Rex Aragonum, XVII.

23
. A slip of memory: Livy says somewhat similar things of the Spanish (XXXVII, 25).

24
. Seneca,
Epist. moral.
, XXII, 11. (The
Duke
of Venice is the
Doge
.)

25
. Seneca (the dramatist),
Thyestes
, II, i, 30.

26
. ’80: follow me,
or to draw from it their own individual aggrandisement and advantages
. All they say…

27
. Ammianus Marcellinus, XXII, 10; of Julian the Apostate.

28
. Diocletian’s reluctance to rule was proverbial (cf. Erasmus,
Apophthegmata
, VI,
Diocletianus
, I). For Anacharsis, cf. Plutarch (tr. Amyot),
Banquet des sept sages
, 155B. (The ensuing anecdote, from Plutarch,
Life of Pyrrhus.)

29
. Erasmus,
Apophthegmata
, V,
Pyrrhus
, XXIV; Lucretius, V, 1431–2.

30
. Erasmus,
Adages
, II, IV, XXX,
Sui cuique mores fingunt fortunam
, citing Cornelius Nepos’
Life of Pomponius Atticus
, together with similar sayings of Menander (in Plutarch) and many others.

1
. ’80: now yet
you at once infer that he is a man of little importance
. It…

2
. Diodorus Siculus,
Historia
, XII, cited Tiraquellus,
De legibus connubialibus
, III, §13.

3
. Quintilian,
Declamationes
, III.

4
. ’80: The rest of the country
adopts as its model whatever is done, in
court:
those vicious fashions are born close to it
. Let…
’80: our
shameful
parts, those
monstrously
padded…

5
. A tercelet is a male falcon (one-third smaller than the female). Montaigne invents the word ‘quartlet’ for even smaller kinglets.

6
. Plato,
Laws
, VII. In Ficino’s Latin translation Plato talks not of customs ‘to which God has vouchsafed’ continuance but of those to which ‘some divine Fortune’ has done so.

1
. An echo of Seneca,
Epist. moral.
, XX, 2–3: the wise man acts consistently, his deeds always in harmony with his words.

2
. Cf. Erasmus,
Apophthegmata
, VI,
Alexander Magnus
, LXIV. (Borrowings follow from i) Plutarch’s
Lives
of Alexander, Otho, Sylla and Paulus Aemilius; and ii) Suetonius,
Life of Augustus.)

3
. [A] until [C]: courage of
those three men
enables…

4
. Herodotus,
History
, IV, xxv; Diogenes Laertius,
Life of Epimenides
.

1
. In the
Cratylus
, where several etymologies do indeed appear fanciful nowadays.

2
. Jean Bouchet,
Annales d’Acquitaine
.

3
.
Outremer
(‘Overseas’) was the collective name of French Crusader kingdoms in the Middle East.

4
. There are as many spellings of the name of the great medieval constable, Bertrand Du Guesclin, as that of Shakespeare.

5
. Cf. Lucian of Samosata,
Lawsuit between the Vowels
.

6
. Virgil,
Aeneid
, XII, 764.

7
. Nicolas Denisot, poet, novelist and portrait-painter as well as intelligence-agent and diplomatist, was known by the anagram of his name and regularly addressed as
Comte
(Count) (Cf. Margaret Harris,
A Study of Théodose Valentinian’s ‘Amant Resuscité’ (by Nicolas Denisot?)
, Geneva, 1966).

8
. Suetonius’
cognomen
was probably
Tranquillus
.

9
. The ‘good chevalier Bayard’ (on whom Jacques de Mailles wrote a popular book) was indeed really called Pierre Du Terrail. Escalin, Baron de la Garde, was nicknamed Captain Poulin.

10
. The Renaissance cult of Classical names adds force to Montaigne’s point. (When Erasmus first heard of Julius Caesar Scaliger he thought the name was fictional.)

11
. Virgil,
Aeneid
, IV, 34.

12
. Cicero,
Tusc. disput.
, V, xvii, 49; translated from the Greek epitaph of Epaminondas.
’95: on our lips
for so many centuries…

13
. From Ennius’ epitaph on Scipio Africanus.

14
. Juvenal,
Satires
, X, 137–41.

1
. Homer,
Iliad
, XX, 249 (translated in text).

2
. Petrarch, Sonnet 82 (83).

3
. Lucan,
Pharsalia
, VII, 734.

4
. Portius Latro
apud
Justus Lipsius,
Politici
, V, xviii; Lucan,
Pharsalia
, IV, 275.

5
. Anecdotes from Diodorus Siculus, Jean Bouchet
(Annales d’Acquitaine)
, Plutarch’s
Lives
, Suetonius and Xenophon
(Cyropaedia)
.

6
. Anecdotes from Livy, XI, xl, Aulus Gellius
(Attic Nights
, V, v) and Plutarch (tr. Amyot),
Dicts notables des Lacaedaemoniens
, 221 C.

7
. Plutarch,
Life of Otho
.

8
. Plutarch,
Life of Pyrrhus
.

9
. Plutarch,
Life of Pompey
.

10
. The battle of Cunaxa between Artaxerxes and Cyrus the Great, 401
BC
. Cf. Xenophon,
Anabasis
.

11
. In 1536. The discussion is influenced by the Du Bellay
Mémoires
.

12
. Manilius,
Astronomica
, IV, 95–9.

13
. ’80: Fortune, and that she is
as
uncertain
and random as
our reasoning. Plato,
Timaeus
, 34C.

1
.
Destrier
does indeed derive from the Latin for right-hand (
dexter
).

2
. Livy, XXIII, xxix.

3
. Herodotus,
History
, VIII.

4
. ’95: King
Charles
was saved…
(According to Bishop Paolo Giovio,
Historiae sui temporis.)

5
. The [C] text of Bordeaux is damaged here. It is slightly different, where read-able, from the ’95 posthumous text given here.

6
. Aulus Gellius,
Attic Nights
, V, 11; Suetonius,
Life of Caesar
.

7
. Plato,
Laws
, VII, 789A ff.; Pliny,
Hist. nat.
, XXVIII, xiv.

8
. ’80: the enactment
of Cyrus
, forbidding…

9
. Xenophon,
Cyropaedia;
Justinus,
Historia
(an extract of Trogus Pompeius).

10
. Livy, IX, xxii.

11
. In the
Cyropaedia
he praises the role of cavalry.

12
.
Aeneid
, X, 756–7.

13
. Livy, XXV, xli.

14
. Lucan,
Pharsalia
, VIII, 384–6.

15
. The chapter in which this was treated was stolen by a manservant. (Cf. II, 9 and 37.)

16
. Virgil,
Aeneid
, IX, 704–5.

17
. Livy, XXXVIII, xxix; v; xxi. (Both the Ancient Galatians and the Turks were believed to be cousins of the French.)

18
. Xenophon,
Anabasis
(the Greek retreat from Asia); Diodorus Siculus for the huge catapults.

19
. ’80: on his
horse
adopted…
’80: words.
I do not know what manoeuvre this might be, unless it were one of our ‘passades’
. Caesar… (Both anecdotes from the
Chroniques d’Enguerran de Monstrelet
, which continue those of Froissait.)

20
. Caesar,
Gallic Wars
, IV (of the Suevi of north-east Germany).

21
. Virgil,
Aeneid
, IV, 41–3.